Bridgegate is a ‘Traffic Nightmare That Never Ends’ for Christie

A little over one year ago the Bridgegate scandal erupted in full force and a new poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University suggests the scandal is still taking its toll on Gov. Chris Christie.

Forty-six percent of the New Jersey voters who participated in the survey approve of the job the governor is doing while 48 percent disapprove, according to the poll.

"Gov. Christie gets negative grades on several key issues," said Maurice 'Mickey' Carroll, Quinnipiac University Poll assistant director. "On the economy and jobs, negative 42-52 percent, on the state budget, negative 40-53 percent, on education, negative 40-52 percent. When all of the numbers are taken together it's his worst score in almost four years, so Bridgegate continues to harass Gov. Christie."

The last time Christie had positive approval numbers in a Quinnipiac poll was Jan. 15, 2014 when 55 percent approved and 38 percent disapproved.

"He was doing fine until a year ago and then wham, Bridgegate hit like a 10-car pile-up on the George Washington Bridge and he still hasn't recovered. It's just a traffic nightmare that never ends for Gov. Christie," Carroll said.

By a better than 2-1 margin (65-32 percent) Garden State voters give the governor a positive rating for his leadership skills, but they say he's not honest or trustworthy (50-46 percent) and he doesn't care about their needs and problems (51-45 percent).

At the federal level, New Jersey voters gave President Barack Obama a negative job approval rating of 45-52 percent, but they were happy with their U.S. senators. By a 46-33 percent margin they like the job U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez is doing and they give U.S. Sen. Cory Booker a 51-25 percent approval rating.

New Jersey voters oppose (62 - 37 percent) increasing the state's gas tax to pay for road and transit improvements. They are split (48 - 47 percent) on reducing pension benefits for new state workers as a way to balance the budget, but they support (67 - 27 percent) requiring state workers to pay more for their health care.

The poll of 1,211 New Jersey voters was conducted from Jan. 15 - 19 with a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points. Live interviewers called land lines and cell phones.